Keebler/Blog

- Tom Williams: Was “Apple’s youngest employee”
- Tom: “Being a bum is cheaper in Canada then on LA’s beaches”, “Aspire to still be a bum”
- Inspired by case of a father killing his son in Canada, wanted to facilitate connection between ppl that want to do something
- Austin: Zero Knowledge = socially-driven misson, dealt with privacy issues, brother dying of cancer “shook his life”, someone told him “before you do anything, think about celebrating his life, instead of his death” = thinking about power of collective action, wanted to get back to something that had “meaning”, let ppl express their desire to change the world, “ppl wants to start to reflect ‘this is the world we want’ [using social web technology]”
- Tom: Original Silicon Valley startups: “I have to do this”, dot-com bubble: “I want to do this”
- “Tools have become so easy to look like we’re doing something [when we're not]”
- Tom: I had to suffer through flower.com as if it were meaningful, really it was just “A couple rounds, and an exit”
- Austin: was working with EFF about Privacy, saw activision online, ppl gather around common interests, broadband hierarchy of needs: access then security then establish yourself/presence. “People see world expressed by individuals”.
- Threadless: People realize “I want to be a designer” and can do it
- Social media: monkey see, monkey do (works for charity as well – not all the time – but sometimes)
- Tom: There were charity portals in 1st bubble. Before: “I’m going to be an organization”, now “how can I inspire others?”
- Charity: Like every industry, establishment is intrenched. They need to let go or they lose relevance. Blog can get bigger audience than Oxfam.
- How do you mobilize two-way conversation, create community?
- Austin: It’s not easy. Still seeing failover from 1.0. “You can donate money”
- Tree for life: virtual plant trees = plant real tree.
- “Put the ‘fun’ in functionality”
- Blogging: “Ppl giving talents/skills to a cause”
- Actionable social change e.g. taking mobile photos of human rights abuses and getting them out of a country
- Tom: Web 3.0 facilitates conversation.
- Digg attracts flame wars, without meanful discussion, “little grounps of interest bubble-up then disappear”
- Austin: Big media = “if it bleeds, it leads”
- Home Makeover: mirror emotions of acts of kindness
- Tom: We turn bad news into good stories, “outcomes we can affect”, we’re growing as a good news
- “We’re a place…we don’t have to seek out a relationship with an organization”, seek out specific outcome, support leads to platform of ppl who will help you
- After the social aspect, “Success comes from what happens afterwards”
- “‘Give Meaning’ is one place that facilitates that conversation”
- Austin: “ask 100 ppl if you care about privacy…98-99 will put up their hand.” 95 will give up privacy for a free Big Mac
- Idea into action can happen very quickly
- Marketters are tapping into it e.g. red iPods
- Give ppl something they can do every day
- “If we care about this project, we can make it happen” (in mobile, Second Life, “Serious gaming”)
- Tom: “We need to stop measuring just the transaction…[we have to measure] the impact”
- “We are ppl and we choose to interact with you” i.e. big (email) lists don’t work
- “Inspiring forward”, “Impact won’t all happen within your organization”
- Loves Facebook opening up platform
- Question: Digital divide: “How do you help them come over to this side of the fence where all these good things are happening?”
- Tom: “We become obsessed with solution before we understand the problem”
- “[We have to ask ourselves] ‘Do I want to be part of the conversation or do I just want to promote my solution?’”
- Austin: Ppl ask him “‘I don’t get why MySpace took off’”, “we’re moving a social structure into a new medium”, there’s costs/risks associated with that, bullying, presence coming back to bite you when you apply for job
- “Nothing is more empowering for a childen then thinking ‘I can make a difference somehow’”
- Kids will make mistakes, but they will feel empowered and won’t feel like drones
- Tom: Only org all revenue (including credit card processing fees) flow into organization
- “For 2 years we struggled to [be seen as] legitimate”
- Question: How much should charities be putting into new media?
- Tom: Mistake of a lot of charities “voice of the organization”, conversation should be “many-to-many”
- Question: How do you get 40M ppl together?
- Austin: How do you make it a fun activity? Lots of small changes can be a fun activity e.g. Wikipedia
- Dark Green PC: (based on Seti@Home) will make saving energy on your PC a social activity, large collective action, tech community got behind it, 100M PC screensavers = 13M acres of trees = 200 coal fire plants . “Every time my computer boots up, we’ll see how much energy my team saved”, hiring an open-source project manager, 1.2B PCs in 2 years
- Tom: “Best change in the world happens when we turn our machines off” and go out in the world
- Tom: Perception of competition, but when charities allign, “we’re all in it for the same reasons”
- Question: Can you change the world and still make millions?
- Austin: Every entrepeurer should read “How to change the world”, make money shouldn’t be primary goal of a business but that can be a part of it
- Tom: Embrace ppl who are going to be thoughful, (their new technology) make more throughtful ppl = more credible, the world isn’t binary (digg up, digg down)
- Austin: Need more entrepreneurs in Canada, “Standout Jobs”: raised $1.5M (announcement to come)
- Question: Gap between very local and very global? How is gap being filled through social media?
- Tom: It’s all about “showing action”, “It’s not all doom-and-gloom. He’s the one story of hope”, drawn inspiration from one-another, we all feel good from massive change.
- Rob: Code for Good